


You're Special. Don't Waste It.

by orphan_account



Category: Political Animals, Political Lesbians
Genre: F/F, this is dumb wow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-27
Updated: 2013-08-27
Packaged: 2017-12-24 19:32:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/943806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>TJ decides to intervene. Watching the two of them dance around each other was just painful.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You're Special. Don't Waste It.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tiff bc she's dumb and I should have been in bed like six hours ago](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Tiff+bc+she%27s+dumb+and+I+should+have+been+in+bed+like+six+hours+ago).



> I haven't proofread it. You've been duly warned. It's 6.20am. Good luck.

Susan sighed and looked over the older woman who was debating something or another with someone or another and she found it odd that for a long moment she didn’t care about her job. She actually wished she was at home, wrapped up in bed alone with her laptop, watching that film Chloe that she’d watched more times than she was prepared to admit to anyone else. It wasn’t her fault that Julianne Moore was a great actress (because that was totally why she’d seen it so many times.) For once her job wasn’t her main priority. Her main priority was taking some time to figure out what the hell she was going to do with all of these stray feelings she had for Elaine Barrish, because she was pretty sure if she didn’t get them under control soon something really not advisable was going to happen. Or she was just going to stare at the woman a lot which she seemed to do anyway. She supposed it was good that no one ever took pictures in situations where she was in the background looking at Elaine, because a lot of those would probably be hard to explain. The paparazzi was missing out, they could have ruined her life by now. She snickered to herself quietly and went back to gazing intently at her empty notepad.  
“You should probably stop staring at my mom,” TJ said cheerfully as he appeared next to the journalist’s shoulder.  
“What? I wasn’t staring?” she said quickly, defensively.  
“You were. And you probably need to get some quotes to write down on that little notepad otherwise you’re not going to have an article,” he continued in the same cheerful tone.  
“I wasn’t staring. And I wasn’t going to write an article about this event anyway.”  
“So you literally bothered to attend this little shindig to stare at my mom?”  
“What are you talking about no of course not. I thought I might be able to get some extra quotes but it’s not looking that way so I might just go home.”  
“Well you’re definitely not going to get quotes while stood in the background. You do realise they actually have cameras at this event and there is a 70% possibility that one of the photos I saw someone took has you staring at her wistfully in it?”  
“What?” she spun round to face him, not bothered to hide her vaguely panicked expression.  
“Ha! So you were staring at her!” he said victoriously and she just rolled her eyes and went back to facing forward. “But also, that wasn’t just a ruse, I seriously did see some photographer taking pictures of you and it was while you were doodling in your notebook and looking at her. It kind of looked like you were drawing her, actually, can you draw?” He asked conversationally.  
“I can draw a bit, but drawing her would just be weird,” she said quickly, glad that she had already flipped pages.  
“So if I took that notepad I wouldn’t find any little sketchings of her?” he asked and went to grab it off her but she was way ahead of him.  
“If you took that notepad you wouldn’t have arms for long enough to look through it,” she said threateningly.  
“Man I wish I’d got that as a sound bite I could use it whenever Doug’s being an asshole, that was scary,” he grinned at the reporter, who looked thoroughly unimpressed with him.  
“Why are you talking to me?” she eventually questioned.  
“Well I might as well get to know my new step mom now, right?” TJ grinned.  
“What? I am not going to become your step mom I’m never getting married.”  
“Ah well I guess you’ll be step mom only in thought,” he laughed. “Anyway I came over to tell you to talk to her some point. Obviously not here, but privately. Do something, make a move. You know where her hotel room is you could even ambush her in the hotel lobby.”  
“That’s not very polite,” she laughed and shook her head. “I’m not saying anything, that is not something that I am prepared to happen.”  
“Why? You’re all dressed up with nowhere to go you might as well use it to seduce my mom.”  
“I don’t want to seduce her. I want to continue our friendship and see where it goes.”  
“There has to be some seducing in that somewhere,” he said easily and rolled his eyes. “You’re going to have to do something because Mom’s so worried about this whole election she needs to relax, and she certainly isn’t spending time thinking about her feelings towards you, she’ll leave that for after this whole thing and then she’ll probably have a minor breakdown because I don’t know about you but ignoring the fact that you’re falling in love with someone makes it a lot harder when you finally come to terms with it. So you have to do something, because this is a destructive method that I recognise as something I would do,” he said quietly, his joking conversational tone from before replaced with a serious facial expression the reporter had never seen the younger man wear.  
“TJ I don’t think, I don’t think she feels anything for me,” she said, matching his tone, finally looking him in the eye.  
“I think she does. She doesn’t treat people the way she treats you. You’re special. Don’t waste it.” He looked at her for a long moment and then disappeared back into the crowd, leaving the older woman to consider. She once again found herself looking at Elaine. She supposed TJ was right. It did sound vaguely like something Elaine might do, like waiting until after she lost the election to divorce her husband, so maybe she should say something. Attempting to start a relationship in the middle of an election that they would have to keep secret didn’t seem like the best idea if she was honest, though. But she guessed Elaine having an emotional breakdown wasn’t a great idea either, and her mental state at the moment wasn’t exactly brilliant. Maybe she should just stop thinking about it, she thought and then noticed that Elaine was walking towards her.  
“Making nice with my son now?” she asked with a smirk. “You’re really trying.”  
“He just started talking to me,” she said easily, trying to cover up her internal panic.  
“Odd, I always tell him to stay away from reporters.”  
“Awh, you still count me with all the others? But I’m not even wearing a press lanyard.”  
“But you have your notebook out, even though I told you you weren’t supposed to be reporting.”  
“I’m a known reporter, people don’t just talk to me because they’re always worried it’s on the record, even when I’m not wearing a lanyard.”  
“They’re obviously missing out,” she smiled. “Anyway the real reason I came to talk to you is because I’m leaving because I’ve talked to all the important people and I was wondering if you needed a lift back to the hotel?”  
“That would be wonderful, thank you,” she grinned at the older woman, who returned the smile and then led them through the crowd with a hand lightly pressing against the small of the reporter’s back in such a way that would usually feel suffocating and overly protective, but in this instance she found herself luxuriating in the touch, and was disappointed when they made it to the car. The ride was quick and quiet, full of Susan mostly avoiding Elaine’s gaze and Elaine looking like she was lost in thought about something. There was tension in the air, as though they were both waiting for something to happen. What that something was, neither of them was sure, but by asking the younger woman to come back to the hotel with her, Elaine felt as though she had set off an irreversible chain of events, even though it was where the other woman was staying. Potentially they could part ways and never say anything about that tension, they could just never mention the potentially intrusive touching, they could just never talk about the fact that in some ways they essentially went to that event together, or at least it looked that way. They got into the lift, and still they did not say a word. Finally Elaine turned to the younger woman.  
“Would you like to have a drink with me before bed?”  
“That sounds like a great idea,” she said with a warm smile and then the doors opened and they walked past Susan’s room to the older woman’s and they stepped into the room, quickly shedding their jackets and uncomfortable heeled shoes in a familiar routine; they often had drinks together after a long day, but it felt different. Elaine poured them drinks and they sat quietly on the sofa for a long time, not saying or looking at each other, well aware of how awkward things had gotten. The politician sighed and put her drink down on the table, focusing her attention on her guest.  
“What’s wrong?” she asked bluntly and the younger woman sighed. “I don’t know,” and copied her, putting her drink on the table and turning on the sofa, tucking her legs up under herself. She looked at the older woman for a long moment, who returned the look with one of her own and didn’t say anything.  
“TJ told me something, and he told me with the utmost certainty, but I honestly don’t know what to believe. He might be right, but he might be wrong. And that’s what’s playing on my mind.”  
“You could just trust him?” she suggested.  
“I could. He’s your son and I trust you. But I only don’t know him at all well.”  
“I know. But it wouldn’t be playing on your mind this much if you didn’t see some truth behind his words.”  
“I suppose I should just go ahead and do what he told me,” she said, taking a deep breath.  
“And what was that?” the taller woman asked as Susan shifted in her seat.  
“He told me to seduce you,” she said quietly, and then suddenly she was in her personal space and her lips were on hers and Elaine was pulling her closer and TJ would probably be fistpumping right now if he knew.


End file.
